GrubHub profit rises 75 percent on strong growth in active diners

Oct 25 (Reuters) - Online food delivery company GrubHub Inc’s profit rose 75 percent in the third quarter, helped by a strong increase in the number of active diners using its platform.

The Chicago-based company on Thursday said active diners rose 67.3 percent to 16.4 million in the quarter.

Grubhub also forecast higher-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue of $283 million to $293 million.

Competing in the market for online food delivery with deep-pocketed companies like Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Restaurants and Uber’s Uber Eats, Grubhub has focused heavily on acquisitions and partnerships to boost its active diner numbers.

“We are opportunistically investing an incremental $20–$30 million in marketing and delivery expansion in the fourth quarter, taking our total 2018 investment in growth to substantially more than $200 million,” Chief Financial Officer Adam DeWitt said in a statement.

GrubHub’s net income attributable to common stockholders rose to $22.7 million, or 24 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, from $13 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it reported profit of 45 cents per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of 41 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data.